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In Moore Street where I did dwell,
Lived a butcher boy I loved quite well;
He courted me my life away,
And then with me he would not stay.
I wish, I wish, I wish in vain,
I wish I was a maid again;
But a maid again I'll never be,
Till cherries grow on an ivy tree.
I wish my baby it was born,
And smiling on its daddy's knee;
And me, poor girl, to be dead and gone,
With the long green grass growing over me"
She went upstairs to go to bed,
And calling out her mother said:
Give me a chair while I sit down,
And a pen and ink till I write down.
At every line she shed a tear,
At every line cried, Willy, dear,
Oh, what a foolish girl was I,
To fall in love with a butcher boy.
He went upstairs and the door he broke,
He found her hanging from a rope;
He got a knife and he cut her down,
And in her pocket these words he found:
Oh, dig my grave large, wide, and deep,
Place a arble stone at y head and feet;
And in the middle a turtle dove,
So the world can know I died for love.
This variant was recorded by Sons of Erin, featuring band leader Ralph O'Brien, Johnnie Lynn, "Wee" John Cameron, and Denis Ryan on their self-titled album, Sons Of Erin, ca.1970.
See more songs by Sons of Erin.
A variant was also recorded by Ryan's Fancy (Newfoundland Drinking Songs, ©1973, Audat Records).
See more songs by Ryan's Fancy.
A variant was collected in 1959 as The Butcher Boy from Mrs. Wallace Kinslow of Isle aux Morts, NL, by Ken Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 3, pp.707-708, by The National Museum Of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved. A very similar variant was collected in 1951 from Bert Fitzgerald of Trepassy, NL, and published as The Butcher Boy in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA). A variant was also collected in 1959 from Mrs. Thomas (Annie) Walters of Rocky Harbour, NL, by Ken Peacock and published as She Died In Love in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 3, pp.705-706, by The National Museum Of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.
Kenneth Peacock noted that some of the most beautiful lyric verse in the English language is to be found in this traditional ballad and its relations. The relationships and cross-influences among all these songs is so complex that it is doubtful if the "original" will ever be discovered.
